History Main / UnfortunateIngredients

**Note that "British" is one of the "sensitive" words that require the approval of the ''Secretary of State'' to use in your company name. A cowboy electrician company calling themselves "British Electric" found themselves in hot water because of this as well as their illegal business practices a few years ago.

** There was widespread anger in the UK when UsefulNotes/BarackObama called BP [[ArtifactTitle "British Petroleum"]] during the 2010 oil spill, as it was interpreted (perhaps incorrectly) as him trying to blame everything on Britain, when BP is 40% British owned and 39% American owned. At least one British tabloid newspaper actually ran an editorial [[MisplacedNationalism calling for the British government to intercede on BP's behalf as a result.]]

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** There was widespread anger in the UK when UsefulNotes/BarackObama called BP [[ArtifactTitle "British Petroleum"]] during the 2010 oil spill, as it was interpreted (perhaps incorrectly) as him trying to blame everything on Britain, when BP is 40% British owned and 39% American owned. At least one British tabloid newspaper actually ran an editorial [[MisplacedNationalism [[UsefulNotes/MisplacedNationalism calling for the British government to intercede on BP's behalf as a result.]]

* In recent years Gluten has been getting much the same treatment as HFCS and Transfats. For 99% of the population Gluten is a perfectly harmless wheat protein which acts as a structural molecule. It is not an energy storage protein and thus does not contribute positively or negatively to nutrition. For the 1-2% of the population which suffers from disorders that carry gluten sensitivity it's akin to lactose intolerance - it induces intestinal discomfort, and in many cases is never sever enough to be diagnosed. Never-the-less, thanks to public misinformation on the "evils of gluten" and "carb-free diets", it's become a fad to a advertise products as "Gluten Free", even when there's no logical reason a product would have a WHEAT protein to begin with.

** It's entirely possible that this trend will come full-circle in a generation. An entire generation of youth is growing up today drinking soda pop sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup. To them, HFCS will be the taste they grew up with and grew attached to, and table sugar will taste a little "off." Two decades from now, we may start seeing retro versions of the retro drinks that advertise "Made with real high-fructose corn syrup!"*** This is already happening. Even if you grew up with "real sugar" Pepsi products, by now you've been probably been drinking the HFCS stuff so long that the Throwback version may taste a little "off" the first time you try it... not ''quite'' like an artificial sweetener, but not "right" either.

** Mountain Dew was originally advertised using the name's connotations with hillbillies and moonshine, but has since dropped that and instead rebranded itself as a sort of sports drink. The "Throwback" product (which reverted to using cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup as the sweetener) uses some of the original marketing illustrations, including one image of a hillbilly with an earthenware jug of something so energetic that not only does it open itself, the cork blows a hole through his hat... which is still more PC than the one where a hillbilly was firing a Kentucky long rifle at a presumed "revenoor".

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** * Mountain Dew was originally advertised using the name's connotations with hillbillies and moonshine, but has since dropped that and instead rebranded itself as a sort of sports drink. The "Throwback" product (which reverted to using cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup as the sweetener) uses some of the original marketing illustrations, including one image of a hillbilly with an earthenware jug of something so energetic that not only does it open itself, the cork blows a hole through his hat... which is still more PC than the one where a hillbilly was firing a Kentucky long rifle at a presumed "revenoor".

* Averted with the ''previous'' trendy "evil" of the food industry, ''Trans'' fats. Instead of rewording the ingredients labels, food manufacturers actually went out of their way to reformulate their products to be ''Trans''-fat free by the time the FDA's labelling requirements went into effect in 2006-8. The added bonus, of course, being that advertisers could boast about "zero trans fats" and hope [[ViewersAreMorons gullible consumers]] would equate that with "fat-free."

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* Averted with the ''previous'' trendy "evil" of the food industry, ''Trans'' fats. Instead of rewording the ingredients labels, food manufacturers actually went out of their way to reformulate their products to be ''Trans''-fat free by the time the FDA's labelling requirements went into effect in 2006-8. The added bonus, of course, being that advertisers could boast about "zero trans fats" and hope [[ViewersAreMorons gullible consumers]] consumers would equate that with "fat-free."

Compare Overlaps often with NewLookSameGreatTaste, NewAndImproved, and AsbestosFreeCereal as a means of making marketing lemonade out of the lemons given to them by the consuming public. AsbestosFreeCereal.

** They tried "Kentucky Grilled Chicken" for commercials only to coincide with their new grilled chicken options, it seemed to make them popular for a while. Grilled chicken is healthier than fried chicken in the eyes of public, but in reality, since KFC's grilled chicken is made without removing the skin it has nearly as much fat as their fried chicken.

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** They tried "Kentucky Grilled Chicken" for commercials only to coincide with their new grilled chicken options, it seemed to make them popular for a while. Grilled chicken is healthier than fried chicken in the eyes of public, but in reality, since KFC's KFC grilled chicken is made without removing the skin it has nearly as much fat as their fried chicken.

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